The Last Great Time War
by SamTheAwesome
Summary: The 8th Doctor is summoned back to Gallifrey as tensions between the Time Lords and the Dalek Empire come to a head. What will the Doctor do as the universe is consumed by war? Begins just before the Time War breaks out and will end when the Doctor meets Rose. Follows the 8th, War, and 9th Doctors, as well as various other characters. Please review!
1. Prologue

_Author's note:_

_(This part is not essential to the story, but I had to put it somewhere. Go ahead and skip it if you want.)_  
><em> I am writing this for several reasons. First, I have always been curious about what happened during the time war, and the meaning of the mysterious elements mentioned about it, such as the gates of elysium, the cruciform, (not to be confused with the crucible from journey's end), the skaro degredations, the horde of travesties, the nightmare child, the could've been king with his army of meanwhiles and neverweres, as well as the huge battles, superweapons, and its ravaging effects on and across time and space. It must have been an epic conflict indeed.<em>

_ Sadly, depictions of the war in Moffat's era have fallen short of or contradicted what Russell T Davies established about it and intended it to be. RTD stated that the war was not only fought across history, but inside the time vortex itself, as well as other higher realms. This goes with the Gelth's statement in "The Unquiet Dead" that the war was "invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms." Remember that this was the war between the two most powerful civilizations in the universe, both with time travel, the ability to destroy star systems with ease, erase people or planets from history, create time loops, freeze objects in time, harness black holes, build ships that are bigger on the inside, and other equally astounding technological feats. This was the war fought for the sake of all creation, where both sides would have thrown everything at each other and used every trick they had up their sleeves._

_ Considering this, the war should have looked like the most violent, mind shattering temporal hell you can imagine, and not the Star Wars-esque laser shootouts seen in "The Day of the Doctor," and the somewhat better but still disappointing sequences from "Engines of War."_

_ The excuses I see for this all over the internet all go something like this:_  
><em> "It was the end of the war, everything had petered out, all of the mind shattering stuff was over because both sides had used up all of their best weapons and were making their last desperate push with what little they had left, they only had lower level tech left by then, the horrors and abominations were all gone by that point... And so on.<em>  
><em> Essentially, the excuse everyone makes is that it since it was the end of the war, everything had wound down significantly and wasn't nearly as bad.<em>

_ Not so. The statements made about the war before TDOTD clearly indicate that the final days of the war were the very worst. The war was not burning itself out, but growing and accelerating towards consuming the entire universe (if not the multiverse) and to the total destruction of everything. Here are a couple quotes from "The End of Time" to show what I mean._  
><em> The Master: "But this is fantastic, isn't it? The Time Lords restored!"<em>  
><em> The Doctor: "You weren't there, in the final days of the war. You never saw what was born. But if the time lock's broken the everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks but the Skaro Degredations! the Horde of Travesties! the Nightmare Child! the Could've-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, the war turned into hell! And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth! Hell is descending!"<em>  
><em> The Master: "My kind of world."<em>  
><em> The Doctor: "Listen! Because not even the Time Lords can survive that!"<em>

_ Time Lord council woman: "This[Gallifrey] is only the furthest edge of the Time War. But at its heart, millions die every second, lost in bloodlust and insanity, with time itself resurrecting them, to find new ways of dying, over and over again, a travesty of life. Wouldn't it be better to end it, at last?"_

_ I do like "The Night of the Doctor," and the idea of the warrior incarnation of the doctor who was willing to use weapons and set aside his normal standards in order to protect the greater good.("In the name of peace and sanity") The novel "Engines of War" was a great story, but it fails to set him aside as being different from the Doctor. He was portrayed as just another incarnation of the Doctor, not the one who was created by sisterhood of karn specifically to be a warrior, whose very nature was different from that of the Doctor. I think a big part of the problem is that people call him the "War Doctor," since that is still calling him the Doctor._

_ The depiction of the Time Lords was also disappointing. In the book, they planned to deploy a weapon that would stop a Dalek plot to erase Gallifrey from history, but would destroy 12 or 13 human colony worlds in the process. This is stated to be a big step, and crossing a line they can never come back from. While wiping out a dozen worlds is pretty bad, (although after so many years of Dalek occupation their population would be mostly gone anyway), from what I saw in "The Night of the Doctor" and "The End of Time," it should have been a line they had already crossed long before._

_ I imagined the Time Lords destroying uninvolved worlds just to try to shift the timelines in their favor, or even imploding entire galaxies with thousands of worlds just to get rid of the Daleks massing there, and I imagined that the "War Doctor" (in my story he will simply be called the Warrior), would have fought against both sides of the war long before the end._

_ I have yet to see a fanfic that covers the entire war from beginning to end. This is my attempt to do that, and to do the war justice. It will have elements from the 50th, but it will be different, and a story that lives up to RTD's statements._  
><em> Ok, rant over.<em>

_It will start right before the Time War breaks out and end when the Doctor meets Rose. Follows the 8th, War, and 9th Doctors, and features various other characters._

Prologue

A long time ago, there was a planet called Gallifrey. The Gallifreyans were great space travelers and engineers. In the early days of civilization in the universe, they sought to establish science, thinking, and rationality. They helped save the universe from brutal conquerors such as the Racnoss, and brought peace. The Gallifreyans set their sights on a new goal: Time travel. One of their greatest engineers, Omega, created a stellar manipulator and used it to cause a supernova, to harness the energy to build time machines. Unfortunately, he was lost in the supernova.

His friend, Rassilon, continued his experiments. He created the Eye of Harmony, a black hole held in containment that would power all of Gallifrey's time machines. He created Tardises, sentient timeships that were bigger on the inside and could go anywhere and anywhen. Thus, the Gallifreyans became the Time Lords. Under Rassilon, the Time Lords became the most powerful civilization in the universe. Rassilon led them in a war against the Great Vampires, beings of terrible power that drained the life out of entire worlds. Gallifrey had saved the worlds of the universe once again.

But it was not to last. Rassilon grew proud and jealous. He led the Time Lords in another war, this one against all the other civilizations that had developed time travel, regardless of their intentions. The Time Lords decided Rassilon had become a tyrant, and he was locked away in his tomb in the wastelands. After that, the Time Lords decided that their great powers caused too much harm, and chose to no longer interfere in the affairs of others. Many species forgot the Time Lords, or believed that they were just legends or no longer existed. The Time Lords were still extremely powerful, and did their best to repair paradoxes. However, they grew stagnant and stale, obsessed with rules, rituals, and ceremonies, not advancing or changing while millennia passed.

One day, a young (by Time Lord standards) Time Lord decided he'd had enough, stole a TARDIS, and ran away with his to see the universe and fight evil. He called himself the Doctor. At first the name meant nothing but when he befriended humans for the first time, the name came to mean something much more. It meant he would not be a man of violence but a healer, the man who makes people better. He still fought evil, though, and he had no greater enemy than the Daleks.

Long ago, but long after the early days of the Time Lords, there was a planet called Skaro. On Skaro there were two advanced civilizations: the Kaleds and the Thals. For reasons lost to history, they went to war. A terrible bloody war that raged for centuries and ruined their once beautiful world. Both sides were lusted for victory and were obsessed with racial purity.

Those who had birth defects from the chemicals and radiation were exiled to the wastelands. Davros, the head of the Kaled scientists, realized that the tide of mutations was irreversible. He performed experiments on Kaled embryos to determine the final form that his people would evolve into. The result was a one eyed tentacled blob, incapable of surviving on its own. Davros created armored travel machines to house these mutants.

That was not enough for him, though. He wished to become a god. From his own experiences with the war, Davros believed that interspecies cooperation and democracy were futile. He programmed the minds of his creatures to believe that they were the supreme beings, and removed all love, pity, mercy and compassion. These creatures would have an instinct to exterminate all other forms of life. He named these creatures Daleks.  
>The Daleks turned on their creator and exterminated him. (although they brought him back when they needed him) Their technology advanced, and they built an empire that expanded throughout space and time.<p>

The Time Lords rarely interfered in the affairs of others. But when they foresaw a time when the Daleks would destroy all other forms of life, they made an exception. They sent the Doctor, in his 4th incarnation to Skaro to destroy the Daleks at their creation. Unfortunately, he did not succeed. He believed he did not have the right to commit genocide. The Daleks later found out that the Time Lords had tried to destroy them, and thus began the Last Great Time War.

It was not a full on war for a while, though hostilities were exchanged. The Daleks forged duplicates of the 5th Doctor, to send to Gallifrey to assassinate the members of the high council of Time Lords. In the Doctor's 6th incarnation, they executed an elaborate plan in which they invaded Gallifrey and used a mysterious ancient element to wipe the life out of an entire galaxy. They were forced to work together with the Time Lords to stop the entire universe from being destroyed along with that galaxy, and war did not break out.

However, the Daleks could now make a base from an entire galaxy, and their hatred of the Time Lords never wavered. During a Dalek civil war, Davros and the faction of Daleks loyal to him stole the Hand of Omega, the very device that Omega had created to engineer stars. Davros declared that with it, Skaro's sun would be transformed into a source of unimaginable power, and with that power the Daleks would sweep away Gallifrey and become the new Lords of Time. Unfortunately for Davros, the 7th Doctor had tricked him. When Davros activated the Hand of Omega, Skaro's sun went supernova, turning the Dalek home world into a burnt out cinder. Or so it seemed. Somehow, Skaro had survived, and the two Dalek factions later reunified, more dangerous than ever.

One of the Doctor's traveling companions, a Time Lady called Romana, later became President of Gallifrey. She did her best to cure the Time Lords of their decadent and stale ways, and saw the threat the Daleks posed. After the incident with the Hand of Omega, she forged a peace treaty with the Daleks known as the Act of Master Restitution. Sadly, it was not to last. During the Doctor's 8th incarnation, war erupted between the Daleks and the Time Lords. It was the largest and the worst war ever fought, spanning all of time and space, fought with some of the most devastating weapons imaginable. The universe cracked and strained as the mighty armies deployed everything they could to achieve victory.

Finally, with the universe on the brink of destruction, the war suddenly ended. The Daleks and the Time Lords vanished from time and space. Except for one sole survivor. To those like us who can only perceive one axis of time, they had never even existed. The Time Lords once again became the stuff of myth and legend. Even those who could remember them, most of the Last Great Time War has been a mystery, because so little has survived. Almost no one know the full story. Until now.


	2. The return to Gallifrey

The return to Gallifrey

"All right, where to next? Ah, yes. I've been meaning to go there for a while now."  
>The 8th Doctor entered the coordinates, and flipped the switch. He was on his way to the red rock pass in Idaho to watch the Lake Bonneville Flood, one of the most spectacular natural events in the history of the Earth. He hoped it would take his mind off that peculiar sense of dread he had been feeling for a while. Ever since losing Molly, the Doctor had been feeling quite sad, and his travels had so far failed to distract him. However, the worst was yet to come.<p>

Suddenly, the TARDIS shook violently, and the Doctor had to hold on to the console to stop himself from being flown across the room, down the hallway, and onto his prized collection of razor sharp redstone crystals. When the tremors subsided, the Doctor saw that the coordinates had been changed. He was now headed for Gallifrey. The feeling of dread intensified. He tried to set the coordinates back, but found that the course had been locked, and he was unable to change it. He cursed under his breath. "This had better be REALLY important!", he said, while underneath he felt that something terrible was about to happen.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and into the Time Lord council room. It had a large wooden table, several potted plants, white floors and walls, a harp, and a painting of someone playing the harp. It was an important meeting. Dozens of high-ranking Time Lords were there, including Romana, president of Gallifrey and the Doctor's former traveling companion.

"Hello, Doctor," she said. "Glad you could make it."

"I didn't really have much of a choice," the Doctor replied. "We tried contacting you before, but you ignored our messages, we had no choice," Romana said.

"I was busy," the Doctor snapped. "I don't mean to offend you Romana, but I thought I made it clear that I wanted to be left alone for a while. What is it this time? Do you need me to reverse the polarity? Did a bird hit the glass around the Citadel? Did someone spill a cup of tea on Rassilon's carpet? Did you get a spot of rust on those ridiculous headdresses of yours?"  
>The other Time Lords were not amused. They continued to sit there with serious expressions. A couple sighed in annoyance. Finally, Romana spoke.<p>

"Doctor, Gallifrey is on the brink of war. The Daleks are massing to attack as we speak."

"But what about the Act of Master Restitution," the Doctor asked. "The Daleks should know better than to break the peace treaty. Every attempt they have made to attack Gallifrey has been thwarted."

"This is different. They are massing an enormous fleet, of least two hundred thousand ships. They do not plan to attack us, but to eradicate us."

She pressed a glyph of the table, which lit up and displayed a hologram. It resembled a blizzard frozen in time, but each of the hundreds or thousands of snowflakes was actually an individual galaxy. It was a three dimensional map of a vast area of space. Romana pressed another symbol and the map duplicated several times, each one representing a different period of history. A small red dot appeared in one of the maps and started to grow. Other such points appeared in the other maps and also expanded. The growth was not uniform, sometimes the red areas contracted or almost disappeared, but always grew back and got larger than before. Suddenly, the red areas expanded rapidly with few fluctuations, until they filled huge areas of the maps, which then froze.

"This represents the growth of the Dalek Empire throughout space and time," Romana said grimly. "This is where we are now. They are encountering very few obstacles. Before long all of space and time will be overrun. With their recently created Eye of Harmony, which we call the Eye of Discord, they are attempting to create a rival web of time. We are the only ones who can stop them, and they have reached the same conclusion.  
>"This is why we brought you here, Doctor. You know the Daleks better than anyone else. We need your help now more than ever."<p>

"So you want me to try to stop them?"

"No. Any more aggressive action from us and they will declare war. Even if you succeed, they will just rise from their own ashes, angrier and more bent on revenge than ever. We are planning a peace conference with them, at Junction of Tartarus. We will negotiate the final peace treaty with the Daleks and put an end to their belligerence towards us, and to the rest of the universe as well. You can help us find a way to placate them. If things do not go well, we need you to help us defeat them for good.

"Don't you see that this is a trap? If we try to negotiate a final peace with them, they will attack at the conference!"

"That's why we have chosen the Junction of Tartarus. The area was created for diplomatic relations. Spacetime itself is sensitive to the actions of those present. If there is any aggressive action, the offending party will be ejected into a black hole. However, the Daleks could still declare war on us without attacking us at the conference. You will attend the conference in disguise. The Daleks will probably be more likely to negotiate if they believe you are not present. This is our only hope for averting a war. We cannot enrage them any further."


	3. The Conference at Tartarus

The Conference at the Junction of Tartarus

The Doctor(in disguise), Romana, the Time Lord councilmen, and a couple dozen guards stepped out of Romana's battle Tardis. The Doctor's TARDIS was back on Gallifrey so as not to give away the Doctor's presence. They were in a cavernous meeting hall on the top floor of a huge space station. There were several tables varying greatly in size and shape, obviously meant for the use of many different species. A faint, shimmering force field stood between the time lords and the other side of their table. The walls and ceiling were transparent. The space around the station shimmered with vortex energy, flowing in from several different directions, to circle around a super massive black hole, above which hung the station. They were at the center of a galaxy, with dozens of advanced civilizations in the surrounding star systems. Huge fleets of ships were arriving on either side of the station.

On the Time Lord side were thousands of battle Tardises, small white boxes whose surfaces could morph into any number of weapons. On the other side were the Daleks, thousands of bronze saucers streaming out of the vortex, with rotating, dome-encrusted undersides. One out of every few hundred ships was a command ship several times larger than the regular ones.

The door on the other side of the meeting room opened to reveal the Dalek leaders. Davros, the creator of the Daleks was there, along with three Supreme Daleks, ten black Daleks, and over twenty regular Daleks, with gleaming new bronze and gold colored casings.

"So, I hear you want a final peace, without any more interference," said Davros.

"That is correct," Romana replied. "The hostilities and violence must end. We do not want war," she finished.

"We have only one condition," Davros said. "Surrender the Doctor, and your lives will be spared. You will be allowed to live out the rest of your lives as slaves of the Dalek Empire."

"What?!" Cried Romana. "We will not surrender the Doctor, and we will not be your slaves! I called this conference to discuss peace, not to surrender ourselves to slavery as you slaughter the cosmos!"

"We will have peace, when you meddlesome Time Lords and all other inferior races are gone! As long as there are multiple cultures and opinions, conflict is inevitable. Only total victory will bring peace."

"Please, Davros, listen to reason," the Doctor cut in. "If you continue on this path, you will make an enemy of every species in the universe, and no one will rest until you are destroyed!"

"We will destroy them first," shouted Davros, "starting with you!"

"Need I remind you of the vortex energies swirling around us, which will send any attacking party into the black hole, no matter how superior they claim to be," Romana said sharply.

The Doctor saw that outside the station, thousands more ships on both sides were streaming out of the time vortex, including massive bowships and black hole carriers, powerful Time Lord ships that had not been used for millennia. That was odd. All the ships that were supposed to be there had already arrived, and he didn't think bowships or black hole carriers even existed anymore.

"We needn't worry about the black hole," Davros said with a wicked grin. "My ships disabled the empathic field as soon as I arrived. I have ten thousand warships behind be, armed to the teeth." The Doctor couldn't help but notice there were far more than that. His time-senses were detecting a massive paradox about to happen. "If you do not accept are terms and surrender, we will immediately destroy you. We are so very powerful now. You are all that stands in our way between us and universal domination."

"I should've known this would happen," Romana replied. "Too long we have put up with Dalek aggressiveness. Either you back down and be willing to discuss a real peace treaty, or we will not hold back this time, and wipe the Daleks from the face of history!"

"Too long have we put up with Time Lord interference," shouted Davros. "As long as you Time Lords, especially the Doctor, continue to exist there will be problems!" The ships outside the station adopted combat formations and readied their weapons.

"The universe isn't safe as long as YOU continue to exist," shouted Romana.

"Let's keep our heads here," the Doctor said. If things didn't calm down soon, it would surely end in violence. "We're here to discuss peace, remember?"

Nobody listened, or perhaps no one could even hear him. The Time Lords and the Daleks were shouting threats and expletives at each other.

"THEN LET'S SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL," Davros and Romana shouted simultaneously. Outside the station, the Time Lords and the Daleks opened fire on each other, turning the sky into an inferno of exploding ships. Reality warped as both sides began weaving in and out of the time vortex, dogfighting in four dimensions. The once smoothly flowing vortex energy was thrown into chaos. Inside the station, it was pandemonium. Time Lord guards and Daleks were shooting at each other, but the force field held. The shouting continued, while Time Lord councilmen panicked, some hiding behind chairs, running around, or unsure what to do.

"Back to the Tardis," Romana shouted, opening the door of said Tardis and quickly ushering everyone inside, just as the force field fell. Davros cried out in frustration. He pressed a button on his wheelchair, transmatting himself and the Daleks back to their command ships.

"I can't believe this," the Doctor shouted. "What a fine mess we've landed ourselves in! So much for peace!"

"I'm sorry," Romana said. "I shouldn't have let my temper get the best of me. But what's done is done. I can see now that the Daleks will never depart from their ways. We should have wiped them out before they became this powerful."

They were inside Romana's battle Tardis. The walls and floor were plain white, with three hexagonal consoles. Through the large viewscreens, they could see the battle raging outside. The station had been destroyed, and the fighting had spread to the surrounding star systems. Portions of it were caught in time loops, repeating themselves over and over again, with more and more ships joining to try to change the outcome. The Doctor realized where the extra ships had come from. They had been sent from the future to try to ensure the side who sent them won the battle! Romana's Tardis flew wildly, dipping in and out of the time vortex, trying to shake off the hundreds, if not thousands, of Dalek saucers chasing it. Over three hundred battle Tardises followed, holding the enemy at bay. Both sides were exchanging heavy fire. The Doctor watched as a nearby Tardis was shredded by a Dalek missile. Its larger than the outside interior spilled out, revealing its true size before burning up. Another one fired a huge, conical beam of energy that incinerated over a dozen Dalek ships.

The fighting intensified. Due to the time loops, it was impossible to determine how long the fighting lasted. It could have been a few hours, or it could have been years. The swirling time vortex energy had become temporal storms, rewriting time in their wake. Having managed to throw off the Daleks for just long enough, Romana's Tardis raced through the time vortex back to Gallifrey.


	4. A healer, not a warrior

A healer, not a warrior

The Doctor stepped out of Romana's Tardis and back into the meeting hall on Gallifrey. Several other battle Tardises had landed nearby, some of them bearing scorch marks and scratches. Romana immediately began talking to several Time Lord councilmen, including the head of the Celestial Intervention Agency.

"Put out a call to summon all Time Lords back to Gallifrey. We are at war, and we will need everyone to help!" She then talked to the Castellan, head of security.

"Raise the transduction barriers to maximum. Any unauthorized ships are to be turned away, those who cannot get clearance but still try to get through are to be shot down." She began arguing about protocols with some of the councilmen, trying to get them to adopt wartime measures. They insisted that this was not the proper procedure, that she did not have the authorization of the council to declare war, and to adopt some of the measures she was asking for.

"We'll sort it out in an emergency session in ten minutes," she replied. Our future depends on what we do now." She dismissed the other council members, and turned to the Doctor. "And you, Doctor, will lead us into battle against the Daleks. You have already been fighting them for centuries. You are our best hope for victory."

"What?!" The Doctor was horrified. "You know I'm a healer, not a warrior. I will not be involved with this."

Romana sighed.

"We need your help, Doctor. If we do not win this war, the Daleks will destroy everything. You are always saying that we need to get involved and use our power for the greater good!"

"Not by waging another great time war! I thwart villains and fight corruption, but I am not a soldier! My place is saving innocent people."

"Are you sure, Doctor? The sooner we finish this, the fewer innocent lives will be lost."  
>The Doctor shook his head.<p>

"I will not fight. It would go against the name I chose for myself. I will save those caught in the crossfire, but that is all. I will not allow myself to be consumed by this war." With that, the Doctor stepped into his TARDIS and left to save those he could. Or rather, he would save those he could after he changed the protocols of the TARDIS so the Time Lords couldn't summon it anymore.


	5. Romana's council

Romana's council

Romana was back in the meeting room of the high council. All of those present at the disastrous conference were in attendance.

"The vote has been taken," Romana announced. "We have the required majority. We are now at war, and I have been granted full wartime powers. We must decide what to do next."

"The temporal effects of the battle have been disastrous," said Narvin, head of the Celestial Intervention Agency. "I don't know if I've ever seen a tangle of timelines and paradoxes this bad before. We can't let it spread any more than we have to."

A council woman with short blond hair spoke up."Clearly the combatants from the future sent to that battle have little or no regard for the laws of time. We must not become that."

''Agreed", Romana replied. "Such flagrant abuses must be prevented. We need to win this war, but we must not lose ourselves in the process."

"We will have to win quickly and decisively, then," said a new councilman. "I'm sure there's something in the Omega arsenal that will put an end to this right away."

"Absolutely not," Romana exclaimed. "Those weapons are forbidden for a reason. They are the most horrific ever fashioned." The other council members nodded in agreement. They were all on Romana's side. Hopefully it would stay that way.


	6. I help where I can, part I

I help where I can, part I

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and gasped in horror. This had once been a wonderful, peaceful planet, with soaring mountain ranges, forests of giant mushrooms, a turquoise sky, and deep green seas. Now, it was a barren wasteland, with no sign of life.

The sky was a dull brown, and was filled with swirling dust and ash. A riverbed was now half empty and half filled with thick, black sludge, which poured into one of many giant fissures in the crust of the planet. In the distance a once angular and prominent mountain stood lumpy and misshapen at half its former height, having been partially melted. Smoldering wreckage coated the ground. Nearby, a wrecked battle Tardis lay half cracked open, with the console room and some of the engines spilling out of the gash. The electronics fizzed and popped, and several warning lights were flashing on the half dead console.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, before coughing on the ash and noxious gasses that were what was left of the planet's atmosphere. He had over a dozen refugees in his TARDIS, and he had promised to take them somewhere safe. Unfortunately, this planet no longer qualified. He went back in and took the refugees to another world, one that the Doctor had hoped would not get caught in the war. Hope was all he could do.

As the TARDIS dematerialized, the engines and weapon systems of the crashed battle Tardis went critical and exploded in a brilliant flash of light. The blast tore open a rip in spacetime that rapidly sucked in the whole planet, as if it had never been.

Although the loss of that planet was unfortunate, the Doctor did not think the war would be the end of the world, so to speak. The previous great time war had been much worse than this one, and thanks to a clever trick, the whole thing had never happened. Romana had a brilliant mind and was a great leader. She would be able to defeat the Daleks. Until then, the Doctor would save everyone he could. No war was without collateral damage and injuries, and a Doctor was needed. The man who makes people better. That was the promise he had made to himself, what 'the Doctor' stood for. He would not break that promise over yet another war.


	7. Romana's council II

Romana's council part II

"What news from the front," Romana asked wearily.

"We're still unable to reach Skaro," Narvin replied. "We're stuck in a stalemate, Madame President. So far we've managed to hold the Daleks off, but we're not gaining any ground. Most of the fighting is concentrated in the Stewart cluster, but it's beginning to spread to other areas as well."

"We're also losing battle Tardises twice as fast as we can regrow them," said the chief engineer. "We can't continue like this. Either we will have to win soon, or start mines and factories on other planets to get more materials."

The Chancellor spoke up. "We can't win unless we reach Skaro. At this rate that'll never happen. We will have exhausted all of our resources first."

Another councilman cut in. "Skaro itself is believed to be protected by multiple transduction barriers. We don't really know much more than that, most of our scouts haven't made it back. The fleet surrounding it is massive."

"There may be a way," said one of the oldest councilmen. "I was pouring over some of the writings of Rassilon, and I found something important. It's called the Gates of Elysium."


	8. The Supreme Dalek's plan

The Supreme Dalek's plan

"REPORT, bellowed the top supreme Dalek.

"THE TIME LORDS PLAN TO TAKE THE GATES OF ELYSIUM, the Dalek strategist/intelligence supervisor replied. "IF THEY SUCCEED SKARO ITSELF WILL BE UNDER DIRECT ASSAULT. THE ENTIRE EMPIRE WILL BE AT RISK."

"THEY MUST BE STOPPED," the Dalek supreme agreed. "I WILL INFORM DAVROS. I WILL CONVINCE HIM TO LEAD THE FLEET HIMSELF. WHEN HE HAS FULFILLED HIS PURPOSE, HIS COMMAND SHIP WILL BE ABANDONED TO THE ENEMY. THE TIME LORDS WILL BE STOPPED, AND WE WILL FINALLY BE RID OF DAVROS."

Unbeknownst to Davros, the head supreme Dalek was in fact the first Dalek ever created. He had been the Emperor of the Daleks before, and would be again. He had been defeated and thought dead many times, but he had always found ways to survive and rebuild. Now, he would take control over the Dalek Empire when it was the strongest it had ever been. Once Gallifrey was gone, the First of the Daleks would lead the Daleks to their ultimate destiny of exterminating all inferior forms of life.

Davros' hubris would be his downfall. Of course he would want to lead his creations in this glorious battle. Despite his past experiences, he believed that his creations were truly loyal to him this time. However, his "children" did not need or want him anymore. And, even if the Time Lords were able to reach Skaro, they would never suspect the nasty trap the Daleks had waiting for them.


	9. The Gates of Elysium

The Gates of Elysium

It was the biggest battle of the war so far. The Junction of Tartarus and the ravaging of Xhloxor systems had been pretty bad, but they didn't compare to this.  
>The Gates of Elysium were a vital but almost forgotten rift inside the time vortex. Through the Gates one could access any part of most of the universe almost instantaneously. One could also harvest enormous amounts of energy, and get closer to the Big Bang than normal time travel would allow. Whoever controlled them would have a huge advantage.<p>

The Time Lords sent twenty thousand battle Tardises, thirty thousand bowships, and fifteen thousand black hole carriers to secure the Gates and launch an attack on Skaro, where as many ships as needed would follow.

The Time Lord fleets soared through the vortex like a massive flock of geese toward their destination, using V-shaped formations. The three most heavily guarded bowships in the center of the formation were armed with a devastating new weapon: the supernova cannon. The chamber of the gun was bigger on the inside and held a red supergiant, frozen in a moment in time. When the gun was fired, the star would be unfrozen and rapidly accelerated in time. All of the energy of the supernova would be blasted out of the barrel of the gun in a single, rapid, devastating stream. Skaro's shields had withstood a regular supernova, but they would not stand a chance against this.

Finally the gates came into view. They were two massive, unchanging gashes in the swirling energy of the time vortex, joined in the middle and glowing with an intense white light.  
>The Time Lords were not the only ones there. A massive cloud of Dalek saucers was pouring in from several directions like a swarm of locusts and surrounding the Gates on every side.<p>

Commander Braxnil stood at the bridge of his bowship. As the leader of this fleet, it was his job to secure the gates and ensure that as many supernova cannons as possible survived. When he saw the Daleks rushing towards the Gates, he immediately grabbed the communicator shouting orders, with the Daleks already beginning to attack.

"Fire at will, but do not use the supernova cannons! Fleets ten through twenty, forty through forty five, and sixty through seventy five go to engage the enemy! Clear a path so we can secure the gates! The rest, stay with me! Protect the supernova cannons at all costs!"

About a third of the massive formation broke off to attack the Daleks. They shot in all directions, but mostly to the Gates themselves. Immediately the Daleks closest to the anomaly were blasted to bits, burned or dissolved into nothing under the fire of the Time Lords. As the wreckage was disintegrated by the time winds, the Daleks launched another wave.

The battle continued to rage, with ships on both sides being blasted to oblivion every second. Neither side gained an advantage long enough to secure the Gates. Whenever anyone got close enough, the opposing side did everything they could to stop them. It was chaos. Just like the Junction of Tartarus, ships had been sent from the future to try to secure the battle. Complexities built up as the battle became time looped, both in portions and as a whole.

The battle had no end in sight. Although it was still the first year of the war from the perspective of Gallifrey, the length of the battle was impossible to measure. It just went on and on, and often backwards as well.

One day, however, something came to the battle that was far more terrifying than anything anyone can imagine. This was because it took the imaginations of everyone to conjure up such a horrific fiend. No one was sure exactly when, where, or how it was created. All that was known was that it had been born out of the deepest, darkest fears, imaginings, and nightmares of every sentient being that ever lived.  
>All of these things had been blended together together something even worse, forming an entity of terrible power. Its horrific form was too terrifying to comprehend unless one actually saw it, and those who did see it usually went mad.<br>Because it had been born of terror, it was known as the Nightmare Child.


	10. The Nightmare Child

The Nightmare Child

The Doctor's TARDIS raced through the battle, dodging the missiles and energy beams of the millions of Daleks who were chasing him. Thousands of saucers had abandoned the Time Lord fleets they were fighting just to go after him.  
>There were other things to worry about, too. The fighting had created ruptures in the time vortex, and nasty things could happen if a time ship such as the TARDIS ran into one.<br>Suddenly, about half of the Dalek fleet chasing the doctor broke off and left to join a larger force that was currently fighting an unseen enemy. The Doctor watched in fascination as over a hundred saucers were caught in an energy blast and burst into flame. Whoever it was must have been a fearsome fighter indeed.

He shook his head. Now was not a good time to get distracted. He was here for a reason: to rescue Davros. Although so far the Time Lord fleets had failed to touch his flagship, he had caught wind of the Dalek's plot to betray him at an opportune moment. The Time Lords had made sure not to inform Davros or the Daleks that they were aware of this. They were glad to let it happen.

The Doctor saw things differently. He believed that if he rescued Davros, an agreement could be reached and peace could be made. This was so far the only real chance the Doctor had of stopping this war.

He flipped the communicator switch. Immediately a cacophony of noise came through, the voices of hundreds of Dalek and Time Lord commanders giving orders and thousands of soldiers responding. He narrowed the channels until only one remained: Davros himself. Davros' image appeared on the screen.

"Davros, please listen to me! Your creations plan to turn on you! Come with me, I can save you, and then we can stop this war!"

"Do you think I'm an idiot, Doctor," came the harsh reply. "These Daleks would never betray me! I do not trust a single word that comes out of your treacherous mouth. I can only imagine what horrible things you would do if I were foolish enough to go with you!"

"Please Davros, you have to believe me, I-

"Leave it, he'll never listen. You should know that by now," another voice interrupted.  
>A second image had appeared on the monitor. It was a man standing in a TARDIS console room, with glowing white roundels behind him.<br>His face was lined and hard, with dusty brown hair. He wore a long green jacket just like the Doctor's, but it was heavily battered and stained. Over it there was a brown leather bandolier loaded with grenades, rockets, energy cartridges, and plasma pistols.

"YOU," shouted Davros. "You claim to offer assistance and yet you bring the biggest Dalek killer of them all to destroy me!"

"What," the Doctor exclaimed. "I'm trying to help!"

He turned to the image of the 'Dalek killer.' "Who are you," he asked.

"I'm the one who actually has a chance at ending this war, instead of running away from my problems," the mystery man growled.  
>The Doctor scanned the signal coming from that man's TARDIS. It was identical to that of the Doctor's TARDIS!<p>

The Doctor shouted in outrage. "How dare you turn your back on the promise we made! You're a disgrace to the name of the Doctor! I'll never become you."

"I don't go by 'the Doctor' anymore. I'm simply doing what I have to. One day you'll find out that you have no choice. You should get out of here soon. There isn't much time." The image cut off.

Davros laughed. "How can you promise anything when you cannot even agree with yourself?"

Near the Gates, a disturbance arose. An area of the vortex was bulging and shimmering, as if something was trying to tear its way through. The disturbance grew, shredding any ships that came too close. Then, this..._Thing_ came through. It was absolutely massive, and completely, unimaginably horrific. Ships stopped fighting and began flying haphazardly in every direction, their panicking pilots trying desperately to escape the horror that had crashed their party. The abomination opened a gaping maw and roared, a bloodcurdling psychic scream that penetrated the very souls of everyone present. The maw began sucking in every ship that came too close. The Doctor watched in horror as saucers, bowships, Tardises, and black hole carriers were pulled into the massive jaws and..._consumed_.

Davros began to scream. His ship was being pulled toward the Nightmare Child!  
>The Doctor immediately began pushing buttons and flipping switches, and the TARDIS immediately raced after Davros' command ship.<p>

"My children! Help me," Davros cried. The image of the Dalek Supreme appeared on the monitor.

"YOUR USEFULNESS HAS ENDED, CREATOR."

"You must obey me! I am Davros! I created you! YOU MUST OBEY ME! OBEY ME!"

"DALEKS ARE SUPREME. YOU ARE INFERIOR. WE HAVE NO NEED OF YOU. GOODBYE, DAVROS."  
>The image of the Dalek Supreme cut off.<p>

Davros' ship raced closer. It looked the size of a bronze frisbee compared to the gaping maw of the eldritch abomination ready to receive it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!"  
>Davros screamed. The image turned to static, and Davros' ship was devoured. The Doctor's TARDIS raced away from the battle, having barely escaped the pull of the Nightmare Child itself.<p> 


	11. The Gates of Elysium II

Commander Braxnil had never been more terrified in his life. The most horrific being in the universe, the very embodiment of nightmares, was going on a rampage through his fleet.  
>The communicator was blaring out the terrified screams, shouts, and rambling of half of his subordinates. The other half had enough presence of mind to fire at the monstrosity, but nothing was working. All of their continent cracking missiles and ocean boiling death rays were doing was making the Nightmare Child angry. Even the planet busting weapons weren't having much effect.<br>The Daleks weren't doing much better. They weren't panicking like the Time Lords, but their weapons were not any more effective against the Nightmare Child.  
>There was very little fighting between the Daleks and the Time Lords at this point. Everyone was focusing on driving away the Nightmare Child, and failing miserably.<br>Flailing tentacles of darkness, giant claws, rotten human limbs, and other ghastly appendages were seizing and tearing open ships as if they were made of wet cardboard.

Braxnil realized there was only one thing that might stop the demon from devouring or shredding the entire battle. If this didn't work, nothing would. He pressed the communicator.

"Fire the first supernova cannon!"  
>One of the bowships at the center of the fleet extruded a massive black barrel out of the bow. Everyone averted their eyes as a blinding beam of energy shot out of the cannon, hitting the Nightmare Child dead on. The abomination wailed in agony, stripped of half its power. It turned away from the battle and fled.<p>

Before the Daleks could stop them, the remaining Time Lord fleets had secured the Gates of Elysium and were pouring through to Skaro.


	12. The Battle for Skaro

Despite being at the hub of a civilization waging a war that would soon eclipse all others, the space around Skaro was quite calm.  
>Almost no Time Lords had gotten close enough to see the planet, and those who did never returned.<p>

The planet was surrounded by five hundred thousand ships, with twice that number scattered throughout the nearby systems. Only one fifth of the fleet was in real space, the rest were stationed in the time vortex.

The planet itself had one thousand surface to space defense cannons positioned at equidistant intervals around the globe. Try as they might, with they way they had acted through most of the war, the Time Lords had no chance of reaching Skaro.

Suddenly, a massive white rift opened up within visual range of the planet. Tens of thousands of Gallifreyan warships poured out of the gash. They were in a tight formation, with all of the ships contributing to a massive force field that surrounded their entire fleet.

Alarms were blaring in every city of Skaro. The Time Lords had bypassed all of the defenses surrounding the system, right at the heart of the Dalek Empire!

"REPORT," bellowed the Dalek Emperor, now wearing a new casing to match his status.

"GALLIFREYAN FLEET INBOUND,"  
>relied head security Dalek.<br>THE TIME LORDS STILL POSESS THE SUPERNOVA CANNON! OUR SHIELDS AND BARRIERS ARE INSUFFICIENT TO REPEL IT!"

"SEND EVERY SHIP IN THE VICINITY EXCEPT MINE AND MY PERSONAL GUARD. WE WILL EVACUATE TO JOIN THE GREATER ARMADA," the Emperor ordered.

"WE OBEY," replied the Daleks.

With that, the Emperors ship and guard fleet of one thousand immediately vanished from the surface of Skaro.

Commander Braxnil looked out and saw what few Time Lords had seen: the home world of the Daleks. It was mostly dull shades of gray, brown, and orange, with sections of it covered in sprawling bronze cities. Most of the vibrant greens and blues had been stripped away by the centuries long nuclear and chemical war between the Thals and the Kaleds. The rest was destroyed by the Daleks after the Thals had abandoned their ruined world.

If Braxnil was not careful, he and his fleet would suffer the same fate. Hundreds of thousands of Dalek saucers were converging on them, so many that Skaro was almost  
>completely obscured. The Daleks fired volley after volley at his fleet, but the force field held. Time Lords form the future were attacking the Daleks from behind, but they continued their bombardment.<br>suddenly, the force field around the fleet burst like a balloon!

Every second hundreds of Braxnil's ships were wiped out by a fleet more that twice the size of his own. The Daleks were throwing everything they had at the Time Lords. Not just energy beams and missiles, but bombs that sent their targets into the Void, energy fields that reversed time so that ships were turned back to raw elements, and modified tractor beams that drained energy directly from the power sources of the Gallifreyan vessels.

One of the bowships carrying a supernova cannon was hit! The supernova cannon could no longer be fired safely! If it was destroyed, the entire Time Lord fleet would be wiped out. If this battle was lost, the Time Lords could easily lose the war, and the universe would fall to the Daleks.

Braxnil had a decision to make. He could fire the last supernova cannon on board his own ship now and end the battle, but they had not yet secured a clear path. Thousands of friendly vessels were in the way, and over a million on board who would all perish. On the other hand, if he didn't, the Daleks could end up destroying every other living thing in the universe.


	13. Braxnil's choice

It was not a pleasant decision. Win the battle right now with massive friendly fire casualties, or risk losing the battle and likely the war as well?  
>There was only one thing to do.<p>

Suddenly, he was paralyzed. He could move no more than an inch before time turned back on itself and moved him back. The Daleks were focusing all of their temporal attacks on his ship and those carrying the supernova cannons. The Time Lords could not hold enough of them back to allow him to move long enough to carry out his choice. Any moment now, he would be atomized, aged to death, or fail to ever have existed as one of the far more sinister attacks got through.

Just as quickly as he had been frozen, he could move again!  
>A strangely familiar voice spoke from the communicator.<p>

"This is your chance! I can only hold them off for a few seconds, hurry!"

He pressed the button. A blinding stream of energy brighter than any sun erupted from underneath his feet and shot towards Skaro. Every ship in the way of the immensely powerful bolt vanished faster than a snowflake in a blast furnace. Skaro was hit directly and turned to plasma in less than one second. All of the surviving ships left immediately as the fusion reaction of the beam and the elements that were once Skaro created a blast even more powerful than a supernova.

The blast was so bright that it was visible from galaxies away. No trace of the Dalek homeworld remained.

The battle was won. At least five billion Daleks had been wiped out, but so had over a million innocent soldiers. Braxnil returned to Gallifrey with heavy hearts, hoping desperately that he really had done the right thing.


	14. I help where I can, part II

The Doctor hummed as he stroked the TARDIS console, occasionally pressing a button or flipping switch when needed.

He was using the TARDIS to tow a damaged passenger liner away from where it had been attacked by Daleks. While he had been securing the energy cable, he sent a distress signal to summon a squad of battle Tardises, which had quickly disposed of the Daleks.

It was a hit and run attack, with only six Dalek ships involved. (Although six Dalek ships were enough to devastate a planet in a concentrated attack.) They were moving quickly, and had only taken a couple passing shots at the civilian ship. Ordinarily they would have made sure to destroy it, so they must have been in a real hurry. Perhaps they were on their way to regroup with a larger force for an important battle.

It was not important to the Doctor. He was still refusing Romana's pleas for him to fight. A full military campaign was an entirely different thing than his various conflicts with the Daleks over the years. He wasn't sure he'd even know what to do if he were fighting a war.

Fighting was not the Doctor's place. If he didn't save the people in that passenger ship, who would? Who else would have saved the people on Akrayshos 7 when their largest moon was exploded by a stay Dalek missile? Or Yorligia when their planetary shield had imploded under temporal stress from the fighting?

The Doctor was pulled out of his thoughts as the TARDIS informed him they had reached their destination. He landed the TARDIS, gently setting the ship down into the grass of one of several planets the Doctor had found and set aside for refugees. After the people were fed, healed, and cleaned up here, they would be taken back to their homes if they still existed. If not, they could live here.

The moment the Doctor exited the TARDIS, people rushed in from all around to greet him. Mothers and fathers thanked him for saving their families, while children gave him hand-drawn pictures and notes. He accepted them cheerfully, and led them into the TARDIS to show how he taped up each one and saved it.

After they were gone, the Doctor sat staring at the wall of drawings and reflecting. He held the flower that one little girl had left in his hair.  
>He was glad to be doing this, and to know that even in the darkest times, there was still peace and joy in the universe, and that he was able to help preserve it.<p>

Deep down, though, he was worried. He had hoped that this crisis would pass quickly, but it hadn't. From his perspective, it had been several years since the War began, and conflict was growing. Hopefully it would end soon.

The Doctor still had faith, though. Romana was a truly remarkable woman, and had gotten her people out of many sticky situations before. Granted, none had been as big as this, but perhaps it would turn out better in the end. Perhaps fighting a great evil for the sake of the universe was the crucible that would forge his people into something better than they had ever been.  
>Great men are forged in fire, so they say.<p> 


	15. Romana's council, part III

It was a good day for almost everyone present. Skaro was gone, the Daleks were retreating, and victory seemed to be within reach.

The only one who wasn't relieved was commander Braxnil. He could not get over what he had done. A million innocent Gallifreyans were dead by his hand.

"Am I a murderer," he asked. "I just snuffed out a million lives!"

"You did what you had to do," Romana said gently. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. If we had lost that battle, we would likely have lost the war. If we lost the war the Daleks would destroy everything."

"Oh grow up," growled the chief engineer. "If we fuss too much over those who will inevitably be lost, we won't ever win this war. We must win, and if we break a few rules in the process, so be it."

"Don't be so hard on him," Romana retorted. "He didn't break any rules. What he did was perfectly within-wait a minute. What have YOU been doing?" Romana had turned to the chief engineer in suspicion.

"Oh, nothing," he replied somewhat nervously.

"Let's make sure of that," said Romana. She tapped a series of glyphs on the table, and a hologram appeared. It was a diagram of a vault, full of bizarre and fiendish technological terrors of every kind. A red dot was flashing where three of the devices had been taken! The engineers hadn't built the supernova cannons, they had stolen them from the Omega arsenal!

Romana glared at the chief engineer.  
>"You have broken the law and disobeyed a direct order. You're fired."<p>

The former chief engineer jumped up in indignation.  
>"What?! You said the supernova cannon was perfectly acceptable when you thought it was a new design! How should this make it any different! I just did what I had to do to help win this war! This isn't fair!"<p>

"We established at the beginning that there was a line we would not cross. You have crossed it, and in doing so broke the law and disobeyed a direct presidential order.  
>The peoples of the universe look up to us to save them from the Daleks. If we use those weapons, we will become as hated and feared as they are. If we allow ourselves access to the Omega arsenal at all, how long will it be before we lose all self restraint? We are better than the Daleks because we value peace and life above our own greedy self interest. We must not lose that. You are dismissed. Leave now."<p>

The former chief engineer took of his hat, threw it on the table, and stormed off without another word. Many of the council members looked invigorated by Romana's speech. Some, however, as many as a third, looked disgruntled or resentful. They had watched the fired councilman with sympathy as he left. Some of them were now glaring at Romana.

As she sat in her bedroom later that night, Romana was distressed. Her people were starting to forget what they stood for. She feared that rather than forging them into better people, this war would make them lose their souls. Where was the Doctor? If only he would help!


	16. Vansished out of time and space

Vanished out of time and space

Captain Jack Harkness scrolled through the news reports on his computer screen. He was glad to have gotten into the time agency, although he had made sure it happened by way of a "meeting" with the head of the agency.

One article immediately grabbed his attention. It was a headline from the war between the Earth Empire and the Daleks, which had been going very poorly recently. However, the article reported that the Dalek forces had suddenly abandoned their attacks on all fronts, in every era of history. The only evidence towards an explanation was a brilliant explosion in the heart of the Sephira galaxy, which the Daleks had conquered and made their home base. At some point the Dalek homeworld had been moved there.

No one knew for sure what had happened, but the most likely theory was that one of the Dalek's temporal experiments had gone horribly wrong and erased them from history.

There were some exciting tales, though. One veteran time agent claimed that the Daleks were at war with the legendary Time Lords. He said that the dangerous areas of the vortex that the time agents learned to avoid were in fact battlefields of a mighty conflict that human minds could only begin to comprehend. He said that the temporal storms and anomalies around the Sephira galaxy that made it too dangerous to approach were also an effect of this "Great Time War."

Jack didn't believe these tales. If the Time Lords still existed, weren't they supposed to be a race of non-interventionists? Wouldn't a war of such scale be more visible?  
>All of the evidence for this war could be explained through other means. The temporal chaos surrounding the Sephira galaxy was an effect of the disastrous experiment the Daleks had performed. Although the time vortex had indeed gotten much more dangerous lately, there were still a lot of mysteries about it. Whatever was happening was some sort of natural cycle or something.<p>

Jack didn't really care what had happened to the Daleks, he was just glad he would never have to face them. However, he did find the legends of the Time War fascinating. Although it would be much too dangerous for him to actually want to be a part of, it did sound like an exciting adventure.


	17. Romana's council, part IV

"Have any of the major temporal powers responded yet," Romana asked.

"A few," the Chancellor replied. "Most of them are too scared to come out of hiding, despite the fact that we're winning. The Warpsmiths have shown some interest in helping, but we haven't heard from the Tharils since the war began. We believe that they've fled into E-space, and are unaware of recent events."

E-space, or Exo-space, was a sort of "annex universe," a smaller universe connected to the normal universe by a gate maintained by the Tharils. Romana had traveled there with the Doctor, a long time ago.

"We should contact them," Romana said. "It's possible that the remaining Dalek fleets may attack the gate in order to hide from us in E-space."

"Agreed," said Narvin. "We must cut off all of their escape routes. Just one ship would be enough to rebuild an armada."

"Send a scout ship and a flotilla of battle Tardises," ordered Romana. "If there is any sign of trouble there, contact me immediately."

"We also need to find the Eye of Discord," Said Narvin. "We assumed it would be on Skaro, but obviously it wasn't. We can't win unless we unravel the rival web of time."

"Maybe the Tharils will be able to help," one council woman said. The others nodded in agreement. With their allies helping, it seemed the war would be over before they knew it. If only.


	18. The Trap

The trap

The Dalek Emperor waited in the throne/control room of his flagship. It would not be long now. The Time Lords would come to investigate, and their downfall would follow.

A warning signal flashed on one of the controls.  
>"REPORT," bellowed the Emperor.<p>

"ONE HUNDRED BATTLE TARDISES APPROACHING THE GATE," replied a Dalek.

"LET THEM THROUGH," the Emperor ordered. "THEY MUST NOT DETECT US UNTIL THE TIME IS RIGHT."

"I OBEY," responded the Dalek.

The group of battle Tardises flew though the gate, a white void that connected E-space to the main universe.

"No sign of the Tharils," reported one of the Tardis operators.

"Interesting," replied the Captain. "Keep searching," he ordered.

The flotilla exited the white void and entered E-space. The blackness of space was tinted green, per the norm, but that was not the only difference between E-space and the normal universe. There were far fewer stars than there should have been.

"Still no sign of the Tharils, Captain," reported the operator. "Or of any life. Something's not right."  
>Suddenly his face lit up in horror.<br>"Emergency! There are-"  
>His words were cut off as the Tardis shook violently, knocking him out.<p>

"What's the meaning of this," shouted the Captain.  
>His face drained as he saw the screen. His ship had been hijacked from the outside by the Daleks! It was now being pulled into the engines of the Dalek flagship! He looked up through the transparent ceiling of the ship and saw the largest fleet he had ever beheld, with the menacing form of the flagship at the center. It was the last thing he ever saw.<p>

"LEAD TARDIS CAPTURED," reported a Dalek.

"TARDIS ENGINES CANNIBALIZED. WE NOW HAVE THE ACCESS CODES TO THE GALLIFREYAN SYSTEM."

"EXCELLENT," the Emperor boomed. "THE RESOURCES OF GALLIFREY WILL SOON BE OURS. THE TIME LORDS WILL BE EXTERMINATED. WE WILL BE MASTERS OF TIME!"

"WE WILL BE MASTERS OF TIME," chorused the Daleks.

With that, two million Dalek warships launched into the Time Vortex, sweeping away everything the Time Lords were able to send to stop them. When they emerged, Gallifrey was visible, and woefully underprepared to meet them.


	19. Romana's greatest test

Romana's greatest test

The halls of the capitol rang with alarms. President Romana strode into the meeting room, hoping to exude an air of confidence.

"It was a trap the whole time," Narvin exclaimed. They conquered E-space at the beginning of the war, hid a massive armada there, and waited until our forces were spread thin!"

"What are we going to do," said Paradon, a new councilman. "Thanks to Romana's brilliant leadership, there's five billion Daleks at our doorstep!"

"Watch your tongue," Romana warned. I am president of Gallifrey!"

"Well then, Madame President," said the Castellan. "what do we do? I don't know if the transduction barriers can hold off a fleet of this size. Over seven thousand of our ships attacked that fleet as it came though the vortex, and they hardly made a dent. If we recall our forces, they will corner us here and cut us off from other strategic assets!"

"Rig a delta wave emitter through the Eye of Harmony," Romana replied. "Refine the signal so that only Dalek life is affected. Then, we can wipe all of the Daleks out of the system."

"That would take weeks, perhaps months," the new chief engineer complained.

"By then it could be too late," one councilwoman said.

"We'll recall some of our fleets to defend the planet until it's finished," Romana said. "The rest will stop any more Daleks from entering the system."

"What if it's not enough," the same council woman challenged.

"We should open the Omega arsenal," Paradon said. "It would be the easiest way to defeat the Daleks.

"It would make the delta wave unnecessary," the chief engineer mused.

"Enough about the Omega arsenal," shouted Romana. "We must win by doing what is right, not what is easy!"

"Times are dire, Madame President," cried Paradon. "There's five billion Daleks testing the transduction barriers as we speak, and you're fussing over the moral details?!"

Romana was furious.  
>"Enough is enough! We will get the Daleks out of the system, but we are not opening the Omega arsenal! It is not up for discussion! This session is now concluded. You are dismissed."<p>

The council left, but not without a good deal of grumbling and murmuring. Romana heard a few phrases, such as  
>"Lost her mind,"<br>"Our only hope,"  
>"Two million ships,"<br>"Five billion Daleks,"  
>And<br>"Trip to the Death Zone."

Romana sincerely hoped she'd misheard the last one.  
>After she went to her chambers, she sent the Doctor a message. There was very little hope that he would reply, but she didn't know what else to do. Her people were on the brink of rebelling against her, and the space around her world had become a raging battlefield.<p> 


	20. I help where I can, part III

help where I can, part III

The Doctor ran through the smoldering ruins, with voices following close behind.

"EXTERMINATE!"

A family of five ran with him. A father, a son, a daughter, and a mother carrying a baby. The Daleks had attacked this planet because of a nearby anomaly that was leaking temporal radiation. They planned to harness the energy to power their ships and weapons.

"Come along, just a little further," the Doctor said as they climbed over shattered blocks of concrete and hid behind walls.

"Ah, here we are."  
>They had reached the Doctor's TARDIS.<p>

"How are we all going to fit inside that," the little girl asked.

"I'll show you," the Doctor replied excitedly.

As they all filed into the Doctor's TARDIS, the father gasped in shock.

"This is a TARDIS, isn't it?"

"You must be a Time Lord," the mother accused. The children whimpered and hid behind her.

"What's wrong with Time Lords," the Doctor asked, confused.

"Your people have destroyed several peaceful worlds in your war," the father said, backing his family towards the door.  
>The Doctor moved in front of the door.<p>

"Wait a minute, I'm not a part of the war. All I want is to keep you safe."

The family hesitated.

"I promise," the Doctor said.

The family moved back inside, and the Doctor took them to safety. He was glad they had listened, but something was wrong. The Time Lords had destroyed innocent worlds? What had happened on Gallifrey?


	21. Uprising

Uprising

Romana wearily sat down.

"What news?"

"You know what news," Paradon, now the new Chancellor snapped. "We're losing on every front. Half of our defenses are gone, and we're losing more every minute."

"We're using everything we've got to stop the Daleks from getting through the transduction barriers," said the Castellan. "We can't hold them off much longer, and we certainly can't get rid of them."

"How is the delta wave coming," Romana asked.

"Still a week away," the chief engineer replied. "I don't know if that will be long enough."

"I honestly don't know what to do," Narvin sighed. "Unless our allies arrive. Which we don't know that they will."

The Castellan cut in.  
>"We've tried freezing the Dalek fleet in time, trapping it in time loops, or reversing its timestream, but temporal manipulation only holds them off for a few moments before they break out of it."<p>

"We MUST open the Omega arsenal," cried Paradon. "If we don't, we're finished!"

Romana growled in irritation.  
>"Forget about the Omega arsenal. I will not budge on this matter as long as I am in office."<p>

Paradon smirked.  
>"Then perhaps your time is up, Madame President. You have resisted all efforts to utilize the resources we need to win this war, while the enemy who have no such qualms surround us on all sides and continue to massacre our fleets. Your greatest victory in office led us into a trap that now threatens our very existence, and that victory wouldn't have been possible at all without a wise engineer who was willing to do what needed to be done, against your orders. And you fired him for it. You are not fit to lead us in this war."<p>

Paradon turned to the rest of the council.  
>"I propose a vote of no confidence against president Romana. If we are to achieve victory, we will need a wise and powerful ruler who is not afraid to do what needs to be done. I propose that we journey into the Death Zone and resurrect lord Rassilon, our founder and the greatest Time Lord who ever was!"<p>

"What?!" Romana cried. "You don't know what you're doing! I have saved this planet from every crisis it has encountered in my administration, and I will do the same with this one! You can't bring Rassilon back, he was locked up in that tower for a reason!"

"We can and will," said a young council woman. "This war is more dangerous than anything we have ever faced."

"There are rumors," said another councilman, "that the Nightmare Child is still out there and may return. If it returns to full strength and attacks Gallifrey, only Rassilon would be able to repel it."

"You don't know that," Romana countered. "We know little of how Rassilon would handle this. I have saved this planet multiple times during my administration, and you plan to boot me out and replace me with someone we honestly know little about now that we're in another crisis?!"

"I stand with President Romana," Narvin stated. "She has proven herself a capable leader, and I would much prefer her to this mad scheme of yours!"

"Then you can vote to keep her," said Paradon. "Let's see if it will be enough. We will hold the vote now."

They cast their votes, and only seven voted to keep Romana. Her time as president was over, and Gallifrey was about to enter a new era.

"We will now go to the Death Zone, and bring back Rassilon," Paradon announced. "He will lead us out of this dark hour and into the light of a better new age!"

"For the sake of Gallifrey and the universe," Romana replied, "I hope you are right."


	22. I help where I can, part IV

I help where I can, part IV

The Doctor held the wires carefully. A bead of sweat was forming on his forehead. He had only a few seconds left. He pulled one of them out, then welded another one into the area it had occupied. With a wave of the sonic screwdriver, the process was complete.

"It's safe now," the Doctor said to the people standing nervously around him. "It won't explode, and now nothing can be transmatted to this spot unless you let it through."

He had just defused a bomb that had been transmatted to the machinery at the entrance of a time corridor. He believed that the Daleks had done it, but some insisted it was the Time Lords.  
>The people had cringed when they found out he was a Time Lord, but fortunately they'd rather have a Time Lord than a bomb about to go off.<p>

As he sat in his TARDIS hours later, the Doctor smacked his forehead. The detonator of the bomb was of a Gallifreyan design! It HAD been the Time Lords who sent that bomb!

More and more people were starting to hate and fear the Time Lords, though thankfully not as much as the Daleks. Romana would not have allowed this, there must have been a power change on Gallifrey!

The Doctor straightened his jacket, his resolve firm. If his people were playing dirty against the Daleks, he would have to redouble his efforts to save as many people as he could.

Unfortunately, there was something the Doctor didn't consider.  
>How long would it be before his people were so hated and so feared that no one would accept his help?<p> 


	23. A change in the winds

A change in the winds

Paradon and several others nervously climbed the final steps of the dark tower-the tomb of Rassilon-and beheld the body of Rassilon, still lifelike, laying on a pedestal.

Rassilon, it had turned out, was not really dead. He had discovered the secret of immortality, and his mind still inhabited this place while his body slept. He had the power to return to life at any moment if he so desired.

Some had come to claim immortality, but they had been tricked. They were turned to living carvings on the sides of the pedestal. Such had been the fate of Borusa, a President who was the Doctor's former mentor and had later kidnapped the first 5 incarnations of the Doctor and forced them to find a way through the traps in the tower.

The image of Rassilon's face appeared over his body and spoke with a deep, booming voice.

"Who dares disturb Rassilon?"

"I am Chancellor Paradon. We require your assistance, my lord," said Paradon.

"Do you seek immortality, Chancellor Paradon?"

"No, my lord. We seek your leadership. Gallifrey is in grave danger. We are in a war larger than any we have previously experienced. Our defenses will soon fail. Our previous leader has failed us. Our hour of need has arrived. Help us, please!"

The image of Rassilon's face disappeared. For a moment, nothing happened. It seemed Rassilon had refused. Paradon sighed in defeat.

But then, the body of Rassilon started to glow with a faint yellow light, and then seemed to explode with it. Rassilon was regenerating!  
>After the light faded, he sat up for the first time in millennia, and tested his new voice.<p>

"Rassilon is reborn!"

Rassilon strode into the panopticon, where the entire high council was assembled.

"There is a solution. We will open the Omega arsenal, and use all of our assets to wipe the Daleks out of our constellation of Kasterborus! Then, we shall build the most powerful battle station ever constructed, so that no one will ever threaten us again!"

The high council cheered.

Romana looked out of her window as the twin suns of Gallifrey began to set. Things were not going well. If her people continued on this path, twilight would come to the Time Lords in more ways than one.


	24. The Battle of Kasterborus

The battle of Kasterborus

Preda stood in the console room of her battle Tardis, looking through the giant monitors that occupied entire walls. The effect was similar to having transparent walls, but each enemy ships was marked out and each allied one was labelled. The monitors showed real space and the vortex at the same time, creating a dizzying perspective.

Preda was a new Tardis captain, fresh out of the academy. She hadn't even been in the academy very long; education was rushed nowadays because of the War.  
>She was one of the many thousands of Tardis captains tasked with defending Gallifrey from the Daleks.<p>

Behind her was Gallifrey, to the sides her fellow battle Tardises and other Time Lords battleships, and in front was the Dalek fleet. There were so many enemy ships that most of the stars were blacked out, and if even one got through they could conquer the Capitol.  
>Obviously that would be disastrous, she could not let that happen.<p>

Commander Braxnil's voice came over the intercom.

"Fleets five though ten fly over the North Pole and try to draw their fire!"

With amazing precision, Preda flew hew TARDIS over the top of the nearest Dalek fleet toward the North Pole of Gallifrey, and her gunners fired on them from above. Hundreds of enemy ships were torn apart or burned by Gallifreyan weapons.

As the Daleks chased her and her comrades, destroying several nearby Tardises, a larger Time Lord fleet swooped in from behind in the future and wiped out the Daleks chasing her.  
>As the Daleks chased her and her comrades, destroying several nearby Tardises, a larger Time Lord fleet swooped in from behind in the future and wiped out the Daleks chasing her.<br>As the Daleks chased her and her comrades, destroying several nearby Tardises, a larger Time Lord fleet swooped in from behind in the future and wiped out the Daleks chasing her.

Oh no! She was caught in a time loop! She wrestled with the controls, but her Tardis was not strong enough to break out of it.  
>Suddenly, she had an idea. She switched on the intercom.<p>

"The next time the loop comes around, fire time torpedoes, then we will link our Tardises together and fire a blast of Atron energy!"

Although it was not her place to give orders, the other Tardis captains listened to her, as they knew no other way out of the time loop that didn't involve going through it dozens of times.  
>Five hundred battle Tardises launched time torpedoes simultaneously, freezing every ship in the vicinity in a single second in time. The massive atron blast that followed broke the lock and destroyed over ten thousand Dalek ships.<p>

This distraction allowed commander Braxnil to deploy the antimatter conversion bomb from the Omega arsenal at the heart of the Dalek fleet. The hundred or so ships that were hit were half converted into antimatter. The blast took out a hundred ships for each one that was hit by the bomb.

With a huge chunk taken out of their fleet and the Time Lords pressing the advantage, the Daleks retreated. The battle was won.

However, a hundred thousand timeships exploding at once had created another rupture in the time vortex, as had the destruction of Skaro, firing the supernova cannon inside the vortex at the Nightmare Child, and numerous other events in the War. How long would the Web of Time be able to take the strain?


	25. Rassilon's council, part I

Rassilon's council

"We have achieved victory, Lord President," Paradon said triumphantly. "All of the Daleks have fled the system."

"Excellent," responded Rassilon. "Now we must continue to press our advantage. Pursue the Daleks and destroy them."

"But we have suffered major losses, my Lord," said Narvin. "Shouldn't we regroup first?"

Rassilon glared at him. "Every second we waste not hunting them is a second for the Daleks to be rebuilding. We must not let that happen."

"How can we hunt them down when we are scattered and outnumbered," Narvin replied.

"With the power of the Omega arsenal. Unleash the N-forms upon the Daleks. Arm the lead bowships with the Fists of Omega."

"It will be done, Lord President," said the Castellan.

"There is another matter," said the chief engineer. "The Eye of Harmony is beginning to strain under all of the paradoxes and temporal disturbances. In the past it very rarely had any major fluctuations, now it requires round the clock monitoring and adjustments to maintain the Web of Time. On top of that, it is in a constant struggle against the Dalek's Eye of Discord."

"We will build a second Eye of Harmony," Rassilon announced. "With two Eyes, we should be able to stabilize the Web of Time and completely negate any effect the Daleks have on it. This second Eye of Harmony shall be placed in the mightiest battlestation ever constructed, which we shall place at the heart of the vortex. It will be armed with the most powerful weapons ever produced. It shall be called the Cruciform!"

Rassilon would restore his people to his former glory. In his absence, they had grown soft and weak. How dare they allow another species, especially one so aggressive as the Daleks, to develop time travel unchecked for so long! Even when the Daleks had built their own Eye of Harmony and tried to impose their of rival Web of Time, his people had tried to make peace with them! What spineless fools! They would have to be re-taught the true way.

Once that was done and under the rule of their founder, brought back in their hour of need, they would rule the universe forever.


End file.
